Developing personal attachment to a physically active charity event

Abstract

• Given the commonplace of physically active charity events, it is increasingly important for charitable organizations to understand how participants form personal attachments to their events so that marketers can maximize the amount of funds raised and achieve an attractive return on marketing expenditures. This exploratory study examines the ways in which participants at a walk/run for multiple sclerosis form personal attachments to the event. The limited work that has been conducted in this area has focused on cycling events, which may not include all types of participants (e.g., people with physical restrictions tied to the cause) and their experiences. Data were collected through an online questionnaire that employed open-ended qualitative questions. The findings suggest three ways in which participants form attachments to the event, including being known as a fundraiser, aligning self and cause, and developing social bonds.

Leveraging Charity Sport Events to Develop a Connection to a Cause

“…CHARITY SPORT EVENTS 177 others through participating in the event was an important motivator for participation in a Multiple Sclerosis Bike Tour event. Similarly, other research has reported participants expressing a strong desire to show support to loved ones through participation in illness related walks and cycling events (e.g., Filo et al, 2008;Snelgrove et al 2013).…”

“…Given this quality, CSEs provide distinct opportunities for event organizers to develop unique events that differ from traditional charitable (e.g., a fundraiser dinner) or sport-only events (i.e., no charitable component). As Snelgrove et al (2013) suggested, CSEs are inherently unique from sport-or charity-only events so they can allow event registrants to express their individuality. However, given the possibility that more than one event could be hosted to fulfill participants' cause and physical needs, it is important for CSEs to distinguish their events from others.…”

A systematic review of episodic volunteering in public health and other contexts

“… Qualitative cross-sectional 91% Caucasian. Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Snelgrove [ 68 ] 2013 (Canada) N = 57 None None Formation of attachment to the event • Participants developed attachment to the event in three ways: 1) being known as a fundraiser (e.g. public recognition, close others and society aware they were doing good for the organisation); 2) aligning self and cause (e.g.…”

Who's “hooting”? Motivations and scientific attitudes of Manitoban citizen science owl surveyors

“…This is particularly important because experienced individuals may be more motivated by social interactions than beginners (Ewert et al 2013), and participants with social motivations may be more committed to participation (Ryan et al 2001). Studies on sport and leisure volunteering have also found that developing social bonds with other participants promotes attachment to the activity (Snelgrove et al 2013), so providing social opportunities is likely to be particularly beneficial to participant retention (Bell et al 2008, Asah et al 2014, Geoghegan et al 2016. End-of-season data presentation and social events (e.g., Domroese and Johnson 2017) may help participants feel like part of larger community, but may be less feasible in projects like the MNOS where participants are dispersed geographically.…”